Velazquez: Deception not intended | Billings Gazette

[Ediacara]

Velazquez: Deception not intended, lifting of quotes discredits her

By ALLISON FARRELL
Gazette State Bureau

HELENA - Democratic U.S. House candidate Tracy Velazquez of Bozeman found herself apologizing Thursday after passing off direct quotes, comments and specific initiatives of Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign as her own.

During a press conference in Helena, Velazquez presented three of Kerry's initiatives for war veterans as her own, and said the "Military Bill of Rights" she proposed was "based on" Kerry's bill of rights.

The Military Bill of Rights she proposed is almost identical to the one published on Kerry's Web site. And the three veterans' initiatives listed on her press release appear to come directly from Kerry's Web site.

They include Kerry's plans to ensure mandatory funding for veterans' health care, guarantee veterans' retirement benefits and to make the Veterans Administration more responsive.

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My take: a pretty dumb mistake on the part of her staff, but something she owned up to immediately. It's a far cry from plagiarism, but the GOP (as usual) will try to make it into a huge issue.... I think they have word of Tracy's polling number showing the presidential race in Montana has moved into the single digits (ya, you read that right :-) ) and are trying to do a preemptive smear.

[tcdv5]

1. Not a big deal.

How many times did Martz just parrot whatever the GOP leadership said? No one ever made a fuss about that one. Go, Tracy!

[Feanorcurufinwe]

2. Tracey is no slick pol, so it's not a surprise that she makes a misstep

the good news is she is aligning herself with the national campaign, which is her only chance to win (riding Kerry's coattails).

[Ediacara]

3. Something good though

Is that she took responsibility for her staff's actions and apologized, rather than hemming and hawing about what is and isn't plagiarism etc. A welcome change IMHO.